Sixteen-year-old Evangeline "Evie" Greene leads a charmed life, until she begins experiencing horrifying hallucinations. When an apocalyptic event decimates her Louisiana hometown, Evie realizes her hallucinations were actually visions of the future—and they're still happening. Fighting for her life and desperate for answers, she must turn to her wrong-side-of-the-bayou classmate: Jack Deveaux.

But she can't do either alone./

With his mile-long rap sheet, wicked grin, and bad attitude, Jack is like no boy Evie has ever known. Even though he once scorned her and everything she represented, he agrees to protect Evie on her quest. She knows she can't totally depend on Jack. If he ever cast that wicked grin her way, could she possibly resist him?

Who can Evie trust?

As Jack and Evie race to find the source of her visions, they meet others who have gotten the same call. An ancient prophesy is being played out, and Evie is not the only one with special powers. A group of twenty-two teens has been chosen to reenact the ultimate battle between good and evil. But it's not always clear who is on which side.

I have never felt so strongly about needing to DNF a book in my life. If a book isn’t quite my thing, I can usually trudge through it for completion’s sake. But instead, Poison Princess made me feel creeped out, uncomfortable and just downright nasty for reading it.

Jackson is probably the worst love interest I’ve ever encountered in a book. He’s a Cajun boy who behaves in a disgusting, abusive way and talks to Evie in a really awful manner. He objectifies, victimises, and terrorises Evie, and she’s none the wiser and even begins to like his attention like some sort of masochist. Throughout the first half of the book, he talks down to her and calls her a cold heartless rich bitch. All the time while his eyes are sliding all over her body while he calls her beautiful and mentions the dirty things that he wants to do to her. Not to mention his drinking, stealing and general delinquent behaviour.

She’s ice-cold and she’s a conceited bitch. Just a useless little doll – pretty to look at and not a damn thing more – Jackson, page 41.

I once read a brochure about what domestic abuse was, and it has Jackson written all over it. Controlling what your partner can and can’t do, reading their personal emails/messages, taking possession of their belongings and going against their wishes. Jackson does all of those things, and he completely ignores anything that comes out of Evie’s mouth. The second her mum dies and she wanted to mourn and bury her, he has his hands on his mum’s jewelry and is burning her house to the ground. Evie stands up to him and declares that it is her house, her things and her mum and because she’s annoyingly stupid and can’t protect herself for the life of her, he still bulldozes his way through and does it anyway.

This guy has no respect for Evie’s boundaries and their attraction makes me feel sick to the stomach. In one scene, he carries Evie into the house after she faints and she then wakes up with no pants on. In another, he reaches between her breasts and pulls out a necklace she’s wearing. He is a disgusting bully who continuously goads her, calls her names, and brings her down throughout the entire book but then Evie is no better by letting herself get treated that way. Evie is kind of useless and can’t stand up to him but think about it – having a docile, useless female who gets trodded on by an overbearing, creepy bully is the only way a relationship with Jackson would be believable.

“You ought to know by now that if Evie Greene’s got something she doan want me to discover, I’m goan to come up with a way to.” – Jackson, page 146.

The whole exchange makes me sick to my stomach and I can’t condone the fact that this sort of abusive, pigheaded, nasty and sexually abusive behaviour is being presented as a love interest to teenage girls. Sure a bit of possessiveness can be sexy, but this guy is downright creepy and wrong. I never thought I’d say this, but I’d prefer Edward Cullen or Christian Day and even Patch over Jackson any day.

I only reached about halfway through and I’m glad I stopped, because from reading other reviews Jackson gets much worse in his behaviour, asking her to put out for the rest of the book. I got this quote from Goodreads – “Hell, Evie, you’re probably the last girl on earth for me. Would it KILL you to put out?”. No, just no. I feel sick thinking about it.

Well yes the Arcana stuff interesting but it was not enough to keep me going. Evie may be a masochist but I’m not, and I just can’t do it anymore. I also had a real problem with how Jackson’s race was stereotyped and constantly being referred to in the book – that Cajun boy doing his Cajun thing with his Cajun accent. He’s rough around the edges and even says he is probably related to one of his friends because of where they are from.

With Endless Knight on my shelf as well which I obviously won’t get to, I’m not sure what to do with them now. Maybe use them as a doorstop or burn them which would make me feel a lot better for the nasty things this book made me feel.

Series: The Arcana Chronicles #1

Rating: 1 out of 5

Reminder: This is a scheduled post. I am currently on hiatus and will be replying to comments upon my return on January 12.

Jeann is an Aussie YA blogger and mum who loves to read and recommend books! You can usually find me fangirling about books on my various social media channels including Twitter @happyindulgence, Instagram and Youtube.

Okay, this book is actually about feminism. It frustrates me when people don't get it. The author painted a picture of a world where men are basically evil, and barely human, and women are subjected to all this cruelty. THEN, we have a rich girl who rises up in the end above all that and BRUTALLY KILLS this totally evil guy who was chaining girls up in his basement for creepy experiments. Sorry, major spoiler there. Girl has now come into her own, and has all this power, and masochist boy is now terrified of her. Lesson learned I think! The author is showing us this horrible relationship between boy and girl, not condoning it. AND the girl stands up for herself every time said boy wants to get in her pants. Actually the quote that Jeann quoted, that scene made me laugh. It was so total teenage boy and girl!Jenny@Juliababyjen&# recently posted…Nikki Powergloves–Get your FREE copy!

Great discussion Jen! Looks like I was too caught up on the nasty part, I guess that's the risk with DNF reviews. I like how you aligned it with feminism and how the spoilt rich girl kicks ass, that's something to see.

I totally saw that in Jackson. I never really liked him all that much, even in the end, BUT if you had finished it, you would have realized that he was just being an insecure jerk. Major Price and Prejudice type of love thing going on…the rich and the poor, etc. Not saying that I would have put up with it. But Evie really comes into her own by the end, and she definitely doesn't need a man. In fact, Jackson is downright scared of her by the end, which was a nice change! So while I did not really LIKE their relationship or Jackson all that much, I loved watching Evie grow from sheltered rich girl to powerful monster. 🙂Jenny@Juliababyjen&# recently posted…Nikki Powergloves–Get your FREE copy!

Wow, I'm so glad I read your review for this because it kinda looked interesting with the Arcana premise. It must make you wonder how a NY Tmes bestselling author has absolutely no idea that writing in such a way single handedly sets feminism back a century. How did the editors even allow such crap through the publishing house? It saddens me that traditional publishing houses are putting things like this on the shelves just for the money – it's just not right. Any young girls can pick this up and think such abusive behaviour is tolerable in our society. UGH. SMH!

I actually picked this one up for a buddy read but was so shocked at the contents that I had to write a review lol. I think you're right about the author usually writing for adults, definitely not my cup of tea.

Oh my god that sounds really icky, I'm so glad I stopped reading it. Ugh I can't believe he did that, whhhatt? Where did he find that other girl and after building up that romance and Evie fantasising about him?! Wow, thank you so much for sharing that, I sincerely feel the need to never finish this.

Oh yes, that it definitely did. Can't believe how much this one struck my nerves! You're definitely right, I always try and read books until the end because sometimes they need a chance but yeah, couldn't do it with this one. I'm just not sure what the appeal was with Jackson, I mean what an asshat! Thanks Charlotte, happy new year to you too.

I was JUST about to pick this up at the library a few hours ago and now I am so glad I didn't. I HATE love interests like this! Seems way too sexual for YA, this one should definitely be marketed as New Adult. I think it would be more widely liked then. Great review, though!Alise recently posted…2014 To Be Read Shelf

Hmmm. I read this when PulseIt.com had it available for a day, and I liked it. I sped through it, though, and didn't think much about it because I wasn't going to review it.

However, I do find myself agreeing with the points you bring up regarding Jackson. I do wonder if his behavior is that way because the author is used to writing for adults and not teens? And so that sort of thing maybe isn't frowned upon as much… because women apparently like controlling alpha males. Meh.Leeanna @ Leeanna.me recently posted…Blog Tour: The Sorcery Code by Dima Zales

I tried reading this book two years ago. I was in love with the paranormal idea going on behind this but… as soon as I started the book I knew I was in for hell. I didn't even get half way through. I DNFed and then later, after reading some of the reviews, skimmed through some bits of the book to see if it really did get a whole lot worse. It did. He stopped talking to her when she refused to put out and got himself another chick. I kid you not. And this guy is being romanticized. To this day I still feel icky when I read a book with a Cajun male lead in it. Jackson has forever tainted Cajun males for me.

I love your review. It basically hit on everything that was so goddamn WRONG with this book. *shudders*

K. Cole's Immortal After Dark Series are one my favorite ones, but I still haven't read this book, mostly because I prefer reading about a bit older characters, but now, after reading your review, I'm really glad that I didn't, because that kind of behavior would drive me crazy. Great review!PurpleBook@WayTooHot recently posted…Song Of The Fireflies by J. A. Redmerski

Wow. This book must have really pissed you off, Jeann! Although we haven't known each other for so long, I know that you're not someone who easily DNF's a book. Good gracious, I totally support you for DNFing this book. I don't I think I could also stomach reading a book that is downright BS.

I could really feel your rage for this book. Good lord, I think this author is hellbent on insulting the female populace for creating a chauvinistic pig like Jackson. I think it's high time for us to organize a manhunt for these types of male MCs and kill them by hanging or burning!

Yikes…I was really interested in this one but it sounds awful. I've never understood the appeal of guys like Jackson in books. I don't think I'll be buying this one.Michelle @ In Libris recently posted…Waiting on Wednesday #33

I'm so surprised by this review, until now I would heard great things about this book and it's series! I wanted to ready it for a long time, but now it just got pushed way back on my to-be-buying list hahaDeyse recently posted…Defy, by Sarah B. Larson

Okay, this line said it all: "I once read a brochure about what domestic abuse was, and it has Jackson written all over it." I think that should be the tag line of this review. 🙁 I actually love KC's adult novels, but I have had this type of problem with 1 or 2 of her books, just not to this extent… Poison Princess is still on my TBR pile; I kept seeing negative reviews of it, but telling myself not to read them because I didn't want to spoiler the book, then I saw the title of your review and couldn't resist a peek. Something tells me I might not need to read EK myself. 🙁Annie recently posted…Bout of Books 9.0: Daily Recap (Updates)

Hell yeah!! It drives me insane when there is a love interest like this. I can't even believe that people find that sexy. It gets my blood boiling too, that's why I rarely read NA. There is just too much of that kind of unhealthy relationships being romanticized. It's sad.Christy recently posted…Smart Girls Get What They Want by Sarah Strohmeyer

Yikes! I was actually reading this but got interested with other books, I think I'm about 30%-40% in. I've read a few of Kresley Cole's adult romance books before and I did enjoy them, but her heroes can be indeed pushy and crass in getting what they want and since we are dealing with young adults here I can see how it can push some reader's buttons. I don't know if I'll pick this up again to finish but your DNF review did got me curious if I'll have the same reactions.

Eeek, in that case I don't think Kresley Cole would be for me. Surprisingly that she carried some of that through to the YA audience, but looks like some people loved it. If you ever do read it again, I'd be curious to see what you think!

LOL I agree with this post so much. I remember reading this book a year ago and was so disgusted of how a pig Jackson was, and this was the kind of love interest being presented to young and teenage girls. I never got to finish it, either, and never regretted it since. Jackson can die in a shithole for all I care. Love your review, Jeanne. You hit the nail on the head in this one!Faye @ The Social Po recently posted…Potato Awards 2013

wow I rarely see you DNFed book. This book has pretty good rating on Goodreads, I was curious few time about this book but I pushed it from my to buy list over and over. Glad I don't buy it and save my money for other book. I don't think I can stand with Jackson's manner. I'm okay with bad guy character, sometimes it could be cute, but not a bad guy with some abusive actions.

And also I feel sick when I read this quote too "Hell, Evie, you're probably the last girl on earth for me. Would it KILL you to put out?"Ikao @ Sky Duck Book recently posted…Buying Monday + Wrap Up : December 2013

I know, I don't DNF much and much rarely write a review, but this one made my blood boil. I can't believe all those positive reviews for this! Yeah, that quote was terrible I'm glad I didn't get to that.

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Jeann

Jeann is an Aussie blogger and reader who loves to read, write and geek out. I love diverse reads, fantasy and #LoveOzYA reads. When I'm not reading or fangirling, I'm being a mum or thinking about my next meal.

Jenna

Jenna is an Aussie blogger and reader who loves to indulge in great books and great food. You can usually find me binge reading series, fangirling with fellow readers, devouring pastries, or watching trivia game shows like The Chase Australia.

Bec

Bec is an Aussie blogger and reader who loves all types of novels. Fantasy, sci fi, and historical are my usual go-to genres. If I’m not binge reading, I’m usually gaming, trying to take decent photos for bookstagram, or freaking out about silly things.